The United States said on Friday it is considering whether to give North
Korea food aid this year, dangling the possibility as it seeks to revive talks
on ending North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

However, the State Department repeated its position that such aid is not tied
to political factors like whether North Korea will resume six-party talks
designed to persuade it to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions.

North Korean farmers work in rice fields in
the North Korean city of Kaesong May 17, 2005.
[Reuters]

"It's wrong to say that we've halted it. We completed last year's shipment of
50,000 tons and we're considering what we might want to do this year," State
Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters.

He was commenting on a Wall Street Journal report that Washington had halted
all food aid shipments to North Korea so far this year and may not provide any
through the end of 2005.

Boucher said the United States weighed three factors in deciding whether to
give the North Korea food -- its need, the ability of donors to monitor that
food gets to those who need it, and the competing needs of other regions.

The United States has long criticized North Korea, which accuses Washington
of harboring hostile designs against it, for not giving sufficient access to
monitors.

Boucher said monitoring had improved in recent years, but there are still
suspicions that North Korea may siphon off some of the aid for elite government
or military officials.

Washington has until the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 to use money from
the current budget for such aid, Boucher said. In theory, it could use money
from next year's budget to pay for aid in the October-December
quarter.